diaframma: siberia

Mannequin Records celebrate their nine year anniversary with a reissue of Diaframma's Siberia, originally released in 1984. A masterpiece of '80s Italian new wave, and a cornerstone of Italian rock. At the end of the '70s Federico Fiumani, together with two classmates, gave life to CFS. The acronym is formed by the initials of the members: Gianni Cicchi (drummer), Fiumani (guitar and voice), and Salvatore Susini (bass). Later, Susini was replaced by Cicchi's brother, Leandro. The new incarnation of Diaframma was born, with the singer now replaced with Nicola Vannini. From their earliest moments, they shared the same stages as Neon, Pankow, and Litfiba, who all contributed transforming the Tuscan capital into the epicenter of post-punk in Italy. After their first single Pioggia / Illusione Ottica (1982), a split with Pankow (1982), and the mini-album Altrove (1983), the beautiful lyrics of the guitar player and leader Federico Fiumani exposed the band as one of the most popular in the Italian scene. In 1984, Diaframma signed onto IRA Records and Nicola Vannini was replaced by the painter and sculpturist Miro Sassolini. With Miro on board, Diaframma recorded Siberia, 3 Volte Lacrime (1986), and Boxe (1988), unwittingly laying the blueprint for the future generation of Italian alternative music scene. Siberia is one of the most successful attempts to combine derivative Anglo-Saxon musical styles and songs written in Italian. Siberia's title track is a masterpiece that highlights Fiumani's skills, drawing trajectories with his guitar in line with the metaphorical descriptions of a "big chill", reflecting the mood and social climate of Italy in the early '80s. Epoch-making is actually an adjective suitable for the album, filtered through the sensibility of memorable songs like "Neongrigio", "Amsterdam", "De Lorenzo", and "Specchi D'Acqua". An Italian breath, where the lyrics of Fiumani are totally lost in the symbolist poetry, represents a perfect model of harmony between the Italian metrics and the sound and rhythm of English post-punk. Siberia pictures Italy's first attempt to emerge from the exciting comfort zone of the "underground" to deal finally with the real market (IRA sold approximately 50,000 copies at the time), where the tradition of the Italian song-writing was merging with the musical forefather, such as Joy Division, Echo & the Bunnymen, and Television. In February 2012, Rolling Stone placed Siberia as #7 on their poll of the 100 most beautiful Italian records of all time. Edition of 600.